Eco-town plans attacked over public transport links

The choice of sites put on a shortlist to be England's first ecotowns has been strongly criticised for their lack of adequate public transport links and other shortcomings by a government advisory panel.

One site is dismissed as looking like "a typical commercial scheme", and several will need to significantly improve their plans, a report will make clear today.

Other schemes that have aroused strong local opposition - including Middle Quinton, near Stratford-upon-Avon; Weston Otmoor in Oxfordshire; and Hanley Grange in Cambridgeshire - get more promising verdicts on progress from a group picked by ministers to be "critical friends" to developers competing for the five to 10 schemes to be chosen as eco-towns later this year.

The proposal for Middle Quinton, strongly opposed by actors Dame Judi Dench and John Nettles, and possibly the subject of a legal challenge by protesters, is commended for an aim of 100% recycling and no waste to landfill, although transport is considered to be a problem.

The report from the 15-member panel, which includes Red or Dead founder Wayne Hemingway and the TV presenters Kris Murrin and Joanna Yarrow, will be seized on by opponents for falling short on zero-carbon, car-curbing and local employment aims.

Critics of the eco-towns policy warn they could become little more than slightly greened commuter towns. But the housing minister, Caroline Flint, said: "I have been clear from the start that only those bids that reach the highest standards for sustainability can make it through. The panel had challenged developers where there was room for improvement. Some clearly need to up their game and the ball is now in their court."

The most damaging assessment in a carefully-worded report is on New Marston, south of Bedford, which is said to look like little more than a typical existing housing scheme. Curborough, near Lichfield, Staffordshire, "needs to be more ambitious as it is not yet an eco-town", the Guardian has been told. It needs radical transport solutions, as do Manby in Lincolnshire, Rossington in South Yorkshire and Ford in Sussex. Lack of employment and reliance on cars were also a worry for plans for Coltishall in Norfolk.

East Hampshire district council's plan for former Ministry of Defence land at Bordon and Whitehill was praised for passion and commitment. And Weston Otmoor's plan, opposed by Tim Henman's family, with its free public transport, was "potentially" transformational, the advisory panel said.